Brutal reality of battle for hearts and minds

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Sniper fire, ambushes, unseen enemies ... the US fight to win the trust of ordinary Iraqis is taking place in dirty alleys and ruined police stations (Watch our audio slide show)

In Baqoubah, in the Iraqi province of Diyala, unpleasant questions get answered very quickly. There is a startling pop, and then: 'Who fired that shot? Did you fire that shot?'

One of the American soldiers of Bravo Company of the 1/12 Cavalry is shouting at the accompanying Iraqi army troops, hoping against hope, it appears, that a weapon has been accidentally discharged. We are standing in a narrow dirt street lined with single-storey houses. In places sewage has pooled in oily green puddles on the road's surface and there is a nasty smell.

The tense soldiers had been advancing in a column down the street, hugging the walls on either side, while the Iraqi troops tried to engage householders in conversation, handing out 'tip-off' cards with numbers to call anonymously with information on suspected terrorists and asking for the home of the mayor of Burhiz. The welcome is almost friendly at first. People come out. But no one strays far from the doors of their homes.

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While the eyes of the world's media have been focused on Baghdad, it is Diyala that has emerged as the proving ground for whether the US can succeed in turning round Iraq. For it is here that the counter-insurgency strategy of the new commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, is being put to its first test, and being bitterly resisted. His preferred policy of 'clear, hold and build' - coupled with the placement of small units of US soldiers in support of Iraqi forces in some of the most dangerous areas - has quickly emerged, in this province of just over a million, as a deadly game of snakes and ladders, where 'build' turns back to 'clear' in the space of a heartbeat.

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2015610,00.html